Dodik, Milorad

Dodik was born in Banja Luka , Bogolyub and Mira Dodik. He lived in Laktashi , where he attended elementary school. There he played in the urban basketball team of the Yugoslav Amateur League ^[2] . In 1978, he graduated from the agricultural secondary school in Banja Luka, after which he entered the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Belgrade , where he graduated in 1983 ^[3] .

From 1986 to 1990 he was the chairman of the executive committee of the municipal assembly of Laktasi . In 1990, during the first multi-party elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was elected to the National Assembly. ^{[ clarify ]} . During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was a member of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska. He founded a club of independent deputies in the Assembly, whose members opposed the policies of the Serbian Democratic Party, which was in power in wartime.

After the Dayton Agreement was signed in 1996, the Party of Independent Social Democrats was formed from the club, and Dodik became its first president. In the confrontation between supporters of Radovan Karadzic and Biljana Plavšić held in 1997, Dodik was on the side of Plavšić, which was also supported by international structures. In the elections to the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska, Dodika’s party received only two mandates, but in 1998 he became Prime Minister of the Republika Srpska ^[4] .

Dodik was Prime Minister of Republika Srpska for the first time in 1998–2001. In 1998, he liquidated the SRNA Republican News Agency ^[5] . Soon a scandal erupted between Dodik and the President of the Republika Srpska Nikola Poplashen , who signed a decree on March 8, 1999, to remove the prime minister from office. But the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina intervened in the struggle, who by his decision had already removed Poplushen from the post of President of the Republika Srpska ^[6] . In the same month, Dodik himself resigned in protest against the separation of the Brčko district from the Republika Srpska district , but was not accepted by the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina ^[7] .

In 2006–2010, he was again Prime Minister of the Republika Srpska. In the presidential elections in the Republika Srpska on October 3, 2010, he was elected the new President of the Republika Srpska, receiving 319,615 votes (50.52%). In 2006–2014, he blocked attempts to push Bosnia and Herzegovina into NATO ^[7] .

During the campaign for the 2006 general elections, after Montenegro became independent, Dodik said that the Republika Srpska does not exclude its right to hold a referendum on independence. In the elections, SNSD Dodika scored 46.9% of the vote, while SDS won 19.5%. The international community regarded him as a moderate democratic leader of the Republika Srpska ^[8] . Dodik received support from Western countries that sought to isolate Serbian nationalists. They believed they had found an alternative in Dodik. After he became prime minister, the West continued to support him at the expense of Serbian nationalist parties. Western countries have promised that if Dodik remains prime minister, Republika Srpska will receive Western economic assistance. OHR and the Western powers also wanted him to fulfill his promise to return 70,000 Croatian and Bosnian refugees to the Republika Srpska ^[9] .

As promised, after Dodik won the election, Republika Srpska received financial assistance from the European Union , the money was used to pay salaries to government officials and the police. In mid-February 2007, Dodik traveled to the United States, where Madeleine Albright took him. She described it as a “breath of fresh air” and promised 3.6 million euros for immediate help. Republika Srpska also received assistance from the British government in the same month. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said before the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska that the Dodik government "in the first two weeks did more to improve people's lives than its predecessor in two years."

Later, Dodik became the most influential Serbian politician in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later the West regarded him as "an imperturbable nationalist and the greatest threat to a fragile, multiethnic world in Bosnia and Herzegovina." After he became prime minister, Dodik became even more nationalistic than SDS. During police reform in Republika Srpska, Dodik managed to create a nationalist profile for himself. Meanwhile, Haris Zilaidzhich won the election of a Bosnian member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina . As minister during the Bosnian war and a close associate of Alija Izetbegovic , Silajdzic criticized the Republika Srpska as genocide and called for its abolition. In addition, Selaydzhich advocated the further centralization of Bosnia and Herzegovina ^[8] .

In 2007, Dodik was a guest at a Croatian talk show Nedjeljom u dva , in which he, among other things, discussed the return of Croatian refugees to the Republika Srpska and the future status of a unified Bosnia and Herzegovina. On May 5, 2008, Dodik and Serbian President Boris Tadic opened the Republika Srpska Park in Belgrade ^{[10] [11]} .

On June 1, 2008, during a visit to Zagreb, Dodik stated that Operation “The Tempest” was an act of ethnic cleansing against the Serbs ^[12] , and called it “the greatest ethnic cleansing committed after World War II”. Stepan Mesić criticized Dodik for having led disgruntled Serbs in Croatia to live in the Republika Srpska ^[13] , while he did not invite Bosnian and Croatian refugees to return. Ivo Banak, president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, stated that Croatia defended itself at the time, and criticized Dodik’s comments as provocations ^{[8] [14]} .

On December 12, 2008, Dodik stated that Muslim judges should not be allowed to preside over cases in the Republika Srpska ^[15] . Dodik clarified that “it’s unacceptable for the RS that Muslim judges judge us and throw out legitimate complaints. And we think that this is only because they are Muslims, Bosnians and that they have a negative attitude towards the RS, and we see the plot that was created. "Dodik’s comments were condemned by international organizations, the US Embassy in Sarajevo and other officials as“ extremely chauvinistic ".

On September 9, 2009, Dodik and Boris Tadic , the President of Serbia, opened a school in Pale called “Serbia” ^[16] . Bosnian and Croatian members of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Tripartite Presidency did not consult on Tadic’s trip

In June 2014, to the 100th anniversary of the Sarajevo murder, a monument to Gavrila Princip was solemnly opened in Istochno-Sarajevo . Milorad Dodik, who was present at the opening ceremony, said that “the Serbs are proud of their ancestors who fought to preserve their identity” ^[17] .

October 7, 2018 Milorad Dodik won the elections to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and took the post of the Serbian member of the Presidium ^[18] . Zelka Tsviyanovich was elected the new president of the Republika Srpska ^[19] .

He is married to Snezhana Dodik, with whom he has two children. A former basketball player, he is 191 cm tall (6 feet 3 inches).

Opinions on Tuzla and Marcal

In 2009, Dodik declared that the Tuzla massacre was organized, and the bombings on Markale in Sarajevo . The municipality of Tuzla charged Dodik with these allegations. The city of Sarajevo filed criminal charges against Dodik for abusing power and inciting ethnic, racial and religious hatred ^[20] .

The Office of the High Representative stated that Dodik denied the war crimes committed, and stated that “when such distorted facts come from an official with high responsibility, an official who is obliged to abide by the Dayton Peace Agreements and cooperate with the Hague Tribunal , then they are especially irresponsible and they undermine not only the institutions responsible for maintaining law and order, but also the credibility of the person himself ” ^[20] .

Opinion on the Srebrenica Massacre

On April 21, 2010, the Dodik government initiated a review of the 2004 report, which stated that the number of dead was exaggerated ^{[21] [22]} , and this report was manipulated by a former peace envoy. The Office of the High Representative responded and stated that: “The Government of the Republika Srpska should review its findings and adhere to the facts and legal requirements and act accordingly, and not cause emotional suffering to the survivors, torture history and humiliate the public image of the country” ^[23] .

On July 12, 2010, on the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, Dodik declared that he recognized the killings that had taken place on the spot, but did not consider what had happened in Srebrenica as genocide , which differs from the findings of the ICTY and the International Court of Justice . “If there was a genocide, then it was committed against the Serbs of this region, where women, children and the elderly were massively killed,” Dodik said in relation to eastern Bosnia.

In December 2010, Dodik condemned the Peace Implementation Council, the international community of 55 countries, for calling the Srebrenica massacre a genocide. The Council confirmed ^[24] that “one should not forget or deny the genocide in Srebrenica, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina” ^[25] .

Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International Business

In November 2012, the German state prosecution involved Dodik and his son in a corruption case involving Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International. The investigation concerned “several criminal offenses, including falsification of documents, falsification of financial and business reports and fraud”. The judicial system of Bosnia and Herzegovina first investigated the case after filing a complaint, but “political pressure soon stopped the judiciary and the police in the RS” ^[26] .

According to Domagoy Margetich, a Croatian journalist, Dodik bribed him and threatened him ^[27] so that he did not associate him with the history of the case of Hypo Group Alpe Adria. On November 26, 2012, the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko, confirmed that no investigation had been carried out regarding the President of the Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik and his family in Germany or Austria ^[28] .

Honoring Radovan Karadzic

In March 2016, he named a student hostel in Pale in honor of the wartime Serb leader Radovan Karadzic ^[29] . ^[30] This event took place just a few days before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia convicted Karadzic for war crimes ^{[31] [32]} .

US Treasury sanctions for actively obstructing the Dayton Accords

On January 1, 2017, the Department of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Milorad Dodik in accordance with regulation 13304 and his role in challenging the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ^[33] .

“By obstructing the Dayton Accords, Milorad Dodik poses a serious threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said John E. Smith, OFAC Acting Director. “Today’s actions highlight the US commitment to the Dayton Accords and support international efforts to continue the country's European integration.”

Any property of Mr. Milorad Dodik within the jurisdiction of the United States must be blocked, and persons, individuals or legal entities of the United States are prohibited from engaging in business transactions with him.

• Order of Nemanich ^[34]
• Order of the Republika Srpska on the ribbon ^[34]
• Order of Friendship ( Russia , November 22, 2011 ) - for his contribution to the development of cooperation between the Russian Federation and Bosnia and Herzegovina ^[35]
• Order of Saint Sava, 1st Class ( Serbian Orthodox Church ) ^[34]
• Order of the Holy King Milutin ( Serbian Orthodox Church , June 29, 2014 ) ^[36]
• Order of the Holy King Constantine ( Serbian Orthodox Church , 2013 ) ^[37]
• The Order of the Holy Sepulcher ( Jerusalem Orthodox Church ) ^[34] .
• Order of St. Nicholas of Lelici ( Valevskaya Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church , 2015 ) ^[38]

• Engelhardt G. N. Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The emergence and evolution (1990-2006 gg.) / Diss. ... Cand. ist sciences. - M. , 2015 ..

• Official biography on the website of the President of the Republika Srpska (Serb.)